Ticket to Ride

We had our friends Tap and Maggie over for dinner on Saturday and, as it turns out, they love games just like we do. I was glad to hear that they have hosted "game nights" at their house in the past-- even though it was mainly trifling things such as Yahtzee, Scrabble, and the like.

Anything's a start. Right?

To ease these newbies in to the world of respectable gaming we chose "Ticket to Ride- Europe". Tap and Maggie learned the rules very quickly, and we launched into the thick of things right off. Oddly, unlike previous games that have been played like four-way solitaire, this game was much more interactive, with people blocking each other off early on and 80% of the first third of the game taking place in France and Italy alone.

Base scores:

Maggie 86
Mila 96
Tap 116
Po 122

But, there is a bonus for longest rail. Toward the end of the game, Mila brought up the topic of longest rail and we paused to count out the length of everyone's rails. We all assumed Tap's rail was longest. It just LOOKED like it was. However, looks can be deceiving and when we counted it out, my rail was a bit longer. I sort of wished the issue had not come up when it did.

The game proceeded a few turns longer, and the issue of longest rail seemed to be forgotten as everyone concentrated on meeting the obligation of their Destination cards.

When the game was over we counted the base scores and came up with the numbers above.
My rail was 29 cars long. Tap's rail was 31 cars long.

Final score:

Maggie 86
Mila 96
Po 122
Tap 126

2 train cars made all the difference! It was, all in all, a very enjoyable game.